1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a condenser having a liquid-receiver for use in an automobile air conditioning system, or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional liquid-receivers for use in an automobile air conditioning system are shown, for example, as liquid-receiver 70 in FIG. 12A. The conventional liquid-receiver 70 comprises a receiver tank 71 having at its upper end a header 72. The header 72 includes a refrigerant inlet portion 73 and a refrigerant outlet portion 74, each communicating with the inside of the receiver tank 71. In the receiver tank 71, an outlet pipe 75 communicating with the outlet portion 74 is vertically disposed with the lower end positioned near the bottom inside of the receiver tank 71. A refrigerant is introduced into the receiver tank 71 through the inlet portion 73 and then the refrigerant is divided into a liquid refrigerant and a gaseous refrigerant, such that the liquid refrigerant descends by its own weight toward the bottom of the tank 71 and the gaseous refrigerant rises. As a result, only the liquid refrigerant is introduced in the outlet pipe 75 from the lower end thereof and rises to flow out of the outlet portion 74.
As shown in FIG. 12B, the liquid-receiver 70 typically is fixed to a body of a car by a bracket 90 with the inlet portion 73 of the liquid-receiver 70 and a refrigerant outlet portion 77 of a condenser 76 being connected with each other by way of a piping 79.
When the liquid-receiver 70 is fixed to the body of a car by the bracket 90 as mentioned above, however, the bracket 90 is structurally restricted depending on the structure of the body of a car. Therefore, many types of brackets each for exclusive use of the model of a car should be prepared.
Because the liquid-receiver 70 and the condenser 76 are fixed to different portions of the body of a car as mentioned above, the piping 79 for connecting them is required, resulting in increased number of parts. Further, in addition to installing the condenser 76 to the body of a car, the liquid-receiver 70 also should be fixed to the body of a car by the bracket 90. Furthermore, a bothersome task is required to connect piping 79 in such a manner so that one end of the piping 79 is connected to the inlet portion 73 of the liquid-receiver 70 and the other end thereof is connected to the outlet portion 77 of the condenser 76. As will be apparent from the above, installing the liquid-receiver requires many steps of works and is bothersome and troublesome.